Blood Wonderland
by JackStephen
Summary: I died. Well, was murdered actually. But that's okay. I ended up somewhere different. Somewhere better. Blood Wonderland.
1. Chapter 1

**Blood Wonderland.**

_Chapter One. _

I lay there with my eyes shut. The darkness was always a comfort to me. I didn't wish to look at where I was or who I was with. I just wanted my thoughts. I was sick of this world. My head was the safest place to be.

"She appears to have gone insane." A voice from my left echoed. It was monotone. No expression what-so-ever. A startled gasp escaped my mothers lungs.

"Really, dear, did you not expect it?" My father's voice joined in the chorus.

"Well I – I tried to-"  
>"No use in what could have been." The first voice chirped up once more, "It's too late now. She must be condemned to death." He said it as though it was the most casual thing to say in the world. But it was casual, wasn't it? I mean, death happens all the time. Right now. Every second somebody falls off this Earth, their bodies rotting, their souls flying... So it was casual. Death the ultimate. Death the conqueror. Death happened to everyone. It was inevitable.<p>

"There must be another way!" My mother said, her composure returning once more. She leant forward over my motionless body. Her dirty-blonde hair danced along my skin. Her putrid perfume filled my nostrils. Why did she insist on coating herself with such unnatural produce?

"Alice, sweetie. Open your eyes and show the nice man that you're normal. You're not insane. You're not." I took a deep breath, my chest rising. The cool air filled my body. I felt it. I felt it run throughout me. I felt it inflate my being. And then... I opened my eyes. I was in a dark, grotty hospital room. It looked like it should have been closed down years ago, the once white walls a now muddy-brown. Rusty equipment lined the walls, scissors, saws, stethoscopes...

"I am not sure whether I am insane or sane. Who is to judge? Man? Man knows nothing. Man thinks it knows everything when in fact, nothing is all they truly know." I blurted it out all in one breath, my milky-blue eyes darted from person to person.

"It's the kindest way." The doctor looked at me, concern sketched across his otherwise professional face. His white lab coat was covered in blood. His eyes held the memories of a thousand deaths. His gloves were ripped and torn. He picked up a gas mark which appeared to be connected to nothing and placed it over my mouth. I did not protest. Darkness spread across my eyes once more. But this time... it was _darker _somehow. An infinite darkness. As my conscious slipped away from my mind... I died.


	2. Chapter 2

**Blood Wonderland.**

_Chapter Two._

Black. Liquid black. Solid black. Dark black. Light black. Darkness enveloped me. It welcomed me like an old friend. Well, it was an old friend. My best friend. Beckoning me forward. But there was no forward. There was no backwards. There was no up. No down. Just... as it was. Nothingness. But my mind was still conscious. How could that be? I was dead. Wasn't I? Maybe this was what death was like. Conscious minds being held in a state of disarray, left alone with your thoughts for eternity. Infinite torture. Alas, no. Something flickered in the distance. A candle. A small, dying flame, but a candle nevertheless. I ran? No. I couldn't run. I floated towards it. Floated through the darkness. My small white hand longed to touch it. I had no idea why. No motive. But I did it anyway. My fingers wrapped around the flame. It burnt me. The flame was sharp, painful. But... despite my death, it made me feel alive. I tried pulling my hand away, but to no avail. Panic gripped me. I tried removing my hand from the flame, but it was as though some force wouldn't let me. The pain travelled across my fingers, through my hand, up my arm, until it covered my entire body. If my heart was beating, it would have been going extremely fast. The pain was too much. I blacked out.

Days passed. Or was it minutes? I couldn't tell. Time did not exist. Nothing did.

I woke up in a room. My eyes stung and my whole body ached. Especially my hand. The walls were coated with blood. Black hugged the walls. It looked like shadows, moving and curling, twisting and expanding. I sat upright, my movements slow and sluggish. I went to inhale, to take a deep, calming breath. But I couldn't. I physically couldn't. Worried, I pressed my hand against my chest, feeling for a heartbeat. Nothing. Not one beat. I was a walking corpse.

Was this a dream? It was possible, but everything felt _so _real. Then again, it's not until you wake up from a dream that you realise something was astray. I decided to push the thoughts to one side of my mind, locking them away for a while. They were not getting me anywhere. I glanced around the room, and my eyes focused on a bottle on a small table. Walking slowly, I picked the bottle up and swirled it around slightly. The liquid inside was thick. And black. I popped the lid off and gave it a sniff. It smelt revolting. Attached to the small bottle was a large piece of paper, and on it were the words '_Drink __M_e.' They were written hastily, yet whoever wrote it had rather elegant, if not messy, handwriting. This all seemed awfully familiar to me. I remembered... I remembered something to do with drinking... and growing... No. It must have been a dream. A far off, scattered dream. But no matter how many times I tried to, I could not escape the feeling as though I had been here before.

"_Here goes nothing." _I thought to myself as I drink the liquid in one. I immediately wished that I hadn't. The liquid was thick, impossibly thick to be liquid. It stuck to my throat, refusing to wash away, no matter how many times I tried to cough or swallow. Suddenly, I things changed. The room looked bigger around me. The table grew around me, the shadows and the walls enlarged. It wasn't me that had shrunk, definitely not. My dress was still the same size, for one thing, and I felt the same, for another. My head span at the thought of it all. I ran around the perimeter of the small room, looking for any exit possible. None. The shadows covered the entire bottom part, covering up any potential exits. There had to be a way to get rid of them. Without really knowing why, I extended my hand forward, the same hand which had touched the candle. It glowed bright purple, and the shadows, one by one, sank into it. They wrapped their way around my entire arm, sending shivers up my spine. Despite the freezing cold temperature of the shadows on my already cold skin, I felt empowered.

A wind blew from a gap in the wall, where the shadows had been removed. I wrapped my arms around myself, in an attempt to reassure myself, I suppose, and walked out. Below me we hundreds of trees. They were dead, and seemed to be... moving. On closer inspection it was revealed that they were coated in shadows. The sky seemed to dance, it was daylight, yet it was purple. Stars dazzled in the daylight, bright white beacons of hope. Perhaps one of those stars was my world. Back home. Home where nobody understood me. Home where everyone thought I was insane. No. This was where I belonged. Why else would fate bring me here? I followed a path through the woods, a chill wind forcing me along. Then, out the corner of my eye, I saw something dart between the trees. I ran after it, diverging from the path. It was difficult to run, what with being a corpse and all. Thorns ripped at me, and my dress, at my hair, but I didn't care. I saw the image again, it was dark grey, and kept flying away from me.

"Wait! I just want to talk!" I shouted after it. It was like trying to catch smoke with my bare hands. Impossible.

"Then talk we shall." The creature appeared in front of me. It was a cat, a fat grey cat. Along it's body were several slits of electric blue. They pulsed and oozed, giving off energy. The cat's eyes were blood-red. No, they were _made _of blood. Blood filled the eye sockets, overflowing and running down the cat's face into it's grinning mouth. It's empty gaze seemingly fuelled by it's own blood. At least, I hoped it was it's own blood.

"W-where am I?" I stuttered, the first of many questions which filled my already packed mind.

"There." The cat said, rather unhelpfully.

"And where is 'there'?" I asked, trying to keep my tone sweet.

"Where you are standing." The cat twisted through the air.

"What is this place?" I asked, beckoning to the trees of shadow.

"The Forest of the Hatter. But you should know this. You've been here twice before." Was his reply. His eyes widened, and blood poured out.

"I- I have? W-Who are you?" I stammered.

"Many call me The Cheshire Cat. But you can call me... Chess." It grinned. The tips of his sharp teeth were coating in blood, and appeared to be rotting.

"Okay, Chess... Why are your eyes so-"  
>"So?"<p>

"So... red?"  
>"Why are your eyes so blue?" It continued to twist.<p>

"Can you help me find where I'm supposed to go?"

"Where do you want to go?"  
>"I'm not sure..."<p>

"Then I can't help you."

"Wait! Take me... take me to the see the Hatter?" I asked. I had no idea who this 'Hatter' was, or why he was named as such, but something deep within me, my gut instincts blurted the words out before my mind could engage. Maybe it was one of the perks of being the walking dead. Chess smiled.

"Follow me." He said, before evaporating into a cloud of red smoke.


	3. Chapter 3

**Blood Wonderland.**

_Chapter Three._

I stumbled after Chess, following the numerous trails of red smoke. It clawed it's way into my lungs and dispersed around my body. The effects? I wasn't too sure. I did know that it made me feel _different_. Light-headed, almost. Soon, I heard a glorious mix of smashing and singing, sounds which strangely collaborate well together. A large table lay before me, with the Hatter sitting at the head. A hare, a mouse and a large spider were tucking into the feast which lay before them. A putrid smell made me want to gag, a smell that I couldn't quite put my finger on...

The Hatter stood. He was wearing a large hat (that, I figured, was why he was called 'the Hatter'), and a black suit. His face was white. Not pale, but pure white. His eyes were greenish-purple, with thick eye-liner surrounding them. His hair was black, and his fringe swept down one side of his face. One the opposite side to his fringe, he had a gaping hole in his cheek, through which I could see into his mouth.

"Alice! Join us, join us." He beckoned for me to sit down, but I refused.

"How do you know my name?" I asked, trying to look as domineering as possible. At this, the hare stopped eating and let out a loud laugh. As he was laughing, I noticed that one of his eyes was missing, and instead there was just an eye socket. In which were hundreds – no, thousands, of bugs crawling and eating at his skin. You'd have thought that the sight would make me feel ill, but I felt... nothing. It seemed normal, somehow.

"Oh, dear Alice, do you not remember me?" I shook my head.

"She doesn't remember me!" The Hatter exclaimed, directed at the mouse.

"Ignorant, horrid girl." Was her response.

"Excuse me, but I am _not _ignorant, nor am I horrid." I couldn't help but be defiant.

"You _are _Alice, aren't you?" The Hatter questioned, leaning towards me.

"Yes."

"Then why do you not remember us?"

"I don't know, I don't remember any of this! I don't know where I am or how I got here!" I exclaimed. It was an outburst that was just waiting to happen, let's face it.

"Why, you're in Wonderland!" The Hatter spread his arms out wide, "Well, Blood Wonderland to be precise..."

"Blood Wonderland?"

"Yes. You come here when you die." The Hatter said, playing with a coin. He flicked it through his fingers, watching the light dazzle off it. It took a few seconds for the information to sink in. I had thought that I was dead all this time, yes, but to hear it confirmed was... odd.

"So – so I'm really dead, then?" The hare laughed at my question once more.

"Will you stop laughing at me?" My voice was laced with venom. It made a few clicking/groaning noises with it's throat in response.

"Yes, you are. Quite dead. Stone-cold. Sleeping with the fishes. Six feet under. Not breathing. A corpse. Brown bread. Dead. Lifeless-"  
>"Okay, I get the idea." I replied tartly, interrupting the Hatter's speech. I saw the thought grow smaller in his eyes. He placed the coin flat on the table.<p>

"What is Blood Wonderland, then? It seems awfully... different."

"It's name-sake comes from the Red Queen. The Blood Queen." The spider finally spoke. It's voice clicked, and sounded like nothing more than a whisper being carried by the wind, "Every year the Queen sounds her Card-guards to grab prisoners across the land to harvest them. She drains their blood, and keeps them as empty vessels." I was shocked into silence. What kind of woman would do that to people, dead or not?

"That's horrible." I said, breaking the awkward silence between us all.

"It is. Now sit down and eat, Alice. Dinner is served." The Hatter said. I hesitantly sat down, and removed the silver food cover. Beneath it was a head. A human head, with intestines for dressing, and blood for a dip. Suddenly I wasn't very hungry. I pushed the plate away.

"Suit yourself." The Hatter said, and shrugged, before taking a large bite of the rotting flesh. This was the stench I could smell.

"Shouldn't we tell her about the test?" The mouse whispered to the Hatter, although I could still hear her.

"Yes, the test!" The Hatter shouted, displaying his mouthful of flesh. Nice.

"What test?"  
>"Every resident of Blood Wonderland has to undergo three tests before they set up residence here. Three tests. All must be passed." The spider explained.<p>

"And what if I fail?"  
>"Your soul disappears."<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

**Blood Wonderland.**

_Chapter Four._

The Hatter spat his rotten food/flesh out his plate. He stood on his chair, and strode across the long table toward me, crunching numerous plates and pieces of cutlery as he went.

"Up you get, no time to lose, of to the challenges you must go!" He commanded.

"But – but I don't know where to go or what to do! What are my tasks?" I protested. He looked at his three friends, and they all burst into song.

"_Magic and darkness,_

_Please let us know,_

_What Alice must do,_

_To pass the show._

_Open the portal,_

_Show the light,_

_Give us the guidance,_

_To win this fight. _

_Embark on her quest,_

_Show her the way,_

_Alice must pass,_

_If she desires to stay."_

I just sat and listened to their song, perplexed at the words rolling of their tongues (well, pincers in the case of The Spider). Once their song had finished, three portals opened up in the area. All purple, all swirling, making feel slightly dizzy.

"You must go through the portals, Alice, and complete each task which waits for you there. Only then will you be allowed to stay." The Hatter explained. I nodded, and waked towards the first portal. Taking a deep breath to prepare myself then would have been nice. Stupid dead body.

"Good luck, Alice. Oh, I almost forgot. Take this." The Hatter said. He handed me a small, but sharp and deadly, knife.

"Will I need this?" I eyed it suspiciously.

"Oh, most definitely maybe." Great. I'd probably have to kill something, or someone. I walked towards the purple swirling mass once more, and stepped forward. It sucked me in, wrapping itself around my body. I felt completely disorientated once more, having no sense of direction what-so-ever. My surroundings were completely purple, a range of all shades. Bright and dark, dull and vibrant. As I fell further and further, I heard the Hatter whisper.

"_Don't lose your head." _


End file.
